Saturday, March 17, 2012

This week I helped to teach a class with ideas for using your scraps with the very sweet Marilyn Yerkes at our local quilt shop. We were asked about doing this right after Christmas and it has been so motivating for me to get my scraps organized and to start making projects with them in preparation. Above is my progress with my American Jane scraps quilt. I've got more blocks assembled and I think I'm going to make it twice as big, at least. Finally giving those scraps a good home (because there are a lot of them)! This quilt was inspired by a project in this book and this quilt by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts.

Of course I only took two (really poor-quality) pictures during the class. sigh.

It was very fun to share ideas and projects with other quilting friends and I figured I'd share some of the ideas with you too! I shared some of my recent scrap projects. (Including this quilt finished. I love it. Am now working on the pattern and will share when both are ready!)

Here are some of the other ideas we shared. Some of them you've probably heard of dozens of times, but just in case, here they are all together. (Pictures used with permission.)

Scrap fabric organization: The first thing I recommend is organizing your scraps by color. It's the simplest way to organize your scraps and it will make them SO much more appealing to work with. I bought a couple of sets of those clear, plastic drawers as a simplest possible see-thru storage option.

My second tip for scrap organization: Get rid of the scraps that are no longer inspiring. Clean out and purge.

Have fun! And Happy St. Patrick's Day. Those silly Leprechauns finally got their act together this year and remembered to pull some fun little tricks at our house. Last year they were pathetic slackers. Loosers.

Such great ideas! As a beginner quilter, I hope to have enough scraps someday to do something pretty with. I may try the table runner! Right now, I am still on my second quilt top and just starting to build a stash toward my next project. Love your blog!

I just found your blog. Wonderful quilts...and I love the math related comments. My Daughter graduated from BYU n Math Education and now teaches at Orem Junior High. We have gone into The American Quilting store. It is very cute.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you as well! I hope it was wonderful. This is an interesting post -- the first quilt is gorgeous, and I see that it depends on lots of background fabric (in this case white) for its success. LOVED this post from you -- another great one!

I think Rita's scrap quilt was the second quilt I ever made, and I LOVED it. Still do. I'm saving scraps to make another one just like it! Actually, with all the fabric scraps I've accumulated, I could make 7 of those...

I cut 6" squares and when the stack gets large enough, I sort into piles of colors that work together for simple lap quilts for a prayer shawl ministry. I feel good about using up the scraps, the quilts are small and simple so go fast, and someone not feeling well knows someone is thinking of them.

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